Teen Global Exchange Program

The Teen Global Exchange Program was an iteration of the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Museum Apprentice Program (MAP), an audience engagement initiative that employs a small group of local high school students and creates opportunities through which they might achieve their maximum potential.

The program afforded students from the U.S., Puerto Rico and Italy the rare opportunity to engage with art and culture on the world’s oldest and grandest stage for contemporary art—la Biennale di Venezia (the Venice Biennale). Held once every two years, the Biennale invites nations from across the globe to present exhibitions before an international audience of more than 300,000 visitors. A record 87 nations will participate this year in what has been described as the Olympics of artistic competition. was been chosen to represent the United States at the 2011 Biennale and exhibited the work of Puerto Rico-based artist collaborative Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla. The Indianapolis Museum of Art partnered with Museo de Arte de Ponce (Ponce, Puerto Rico) and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice, Italy) to provide an educational program for teens from all three locations. The students met in Venice during the summer and documented their experiences throughout the program on Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and the blog Our Voices/Le Nostre Voci/Nuestras Voces. Visit the blog to read posts by students involved in the project and learn more about them and their experiences leading up to and during their trip to Italy.